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Mayor Hau Lung-bin:

I'll Make Taipei Beautiful

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin highly praises the city's residents and culture. But the time has come, he says, to give the city a bit of a facelift.

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I'll Make Taipei Beautiful

By Sherry Lee
From CommonWealth Magazine (vol. 401 )

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin has a dream. In that dream Taipei residents relax on the banks of the Danshui River and gather in neighborhood parks with lush trees and abundant flowers. Looking down on Taipei from the surrounding hills, one sees beautiful roof gardens instead of ugly corrugated iron structures.


Q: Where do you see Taipei in comparison with other major Asian cities?

A: Taipei is one of the most livable cities! Just think about it, where else in the world can you find a city where you can safely walk around even at 2 a.m. at night. All parts of Taipei are very safe. You won't find that anywhere else internationally.

Taipei is safe and convenient. At 2 a.m. in the middle of the night, you will find an open convenience store within 500 meters walking distance from your home. Aside from that, Taipei has certain intangibles, such as the civility of its residents, that are unparalleled anywhere else in the world.  People wait in line wherever you go, no one is littering or spitting in the streets anymore. These represent gradual cultural changes. Our garbage for instance is now collected based on a per-bag fee, nothing short of a world wonder. Then we have the MRT stations which are truly spotlessly clean. This shows how sophisticated our people are.

When I recently met a group of Chinese millionaire investors during their visit to Taiwan, they told me that we should be sincerely grateful that fifty years ago the brutal communist forces did not cross the Taiwan Strait or else Chinese culture would not have been preserved in Taipei.

Q: As the mayor of Taipei City, what do you regret about your city?

A: I feel that the pace of urban renewal is too slow. The only thing that I or many Taipei residents regret is that Taipei is not beautiful enough.

It's not that Taipei is necessarily lacking in green spaces. Particularly after the mayor became a popularly elected official more than a decade ago, all mayors from Huang Ta-chou to Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou actively beautified public parks and green areas. But from the top of the hills and from the aspect of urban landscaping -- I mean when looking down from a higher elevation -- you see nothing but corrugated iron structures or old four-story houses, it's very ugly.

Therefore, currently the only regrettable thing about Taipei is that urban renewal should be strengthened and improved. That's exactly why I want to revitalize the Danshui River, because the banks of the Danshui are among the most run-down neighborhoods of our city, and therefore in greatest need of renewal and improvement.

Turning Taipei Into a City of Flowers

Q: Over the past few years Taipei has been rated underrated. How do you want to improve this conundrum?

A: In 2010, Taipei will host the International Flower Expo. I want to seize this opportunity to turn Taipei into a city of flowers. Our plan this year is to select 10 neighborhoods and to form teams of cultural landscape experts that cooperate with the city government's Department of Economic Development. Within three years we plan to expand the project to 400 neighborhoods, teaching the people in the communities how to plant flowers and how to maintain them. I am convinced that Taipei City will become more and more beautiful.

Moreover, I have recently gotten together with many internationally renowned architects such as Toyo Ito because I hope to let the worldwide best architectural talent understand the situation of Taipei City. I also hope to hammer out Taipei's future master plan through frequent discussions, not only for the coming four or eight years, but to decide what Taipei City needs to do over the next 20 years.

In the past planning was not updated according to changing times. We have now reached an opportunity to thoroughly think things through and catch up with international standards.

Taiwan's popularly elected mayors look at the short term for electoral reasons, but I think we need to look at a timeframe of at least 20 years. An administrative leader needs to do what needs to be done and success does not necessarily have to fall upon me. We need to set the general direction.

Q: What's your big dream for Taipei?

A: I hope that 10 years from now Taipei is a safe, convenient, comfortable, friendly city that is suitable for living and investment and has the most splendid ethnic Chinese culture and the richest food culture. But beyond that, I also hope that Taipei will be a beautiful city.

Translated from the Chinese by Susanne Ganz


Chinese Version: 郝龍斌:我要把台北變美麗

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